Why Trunks Are Never Just Boxes

The funny thing is, even though this trunk looks distressed, it works in a modern home. Neutral rooms actually make the colours pop. The scratches and paint chips add contrast you can’t buy in a shop.

I still think about when the circus came to town once a year. Posters glued to walls promised elephants, fire breathers, acrobats — and always clowns. Looking at the trunk feels like it was there backstage, stuffed with costumes and cheap vintage trunk props, waiting for the show to begin.

When I first stumbled across the circus clown trunk, I froze for a moment. The hand-drawn clown staring upside down across the front felt like more than decoration. It felt like a piece of a lost world — an old fairground life.

Trunks aren’t just containers. They’re keepers of journeys. Before cheap mass best storage trunk appeared, trunks were the way people travelled. Built solid, heavy duty, sometimes decorated with brass corners or painted lettering.